Republican senators are demanding answers from the US Secret Service, the FBI and the ATF after reports this week about a 2018 incident involving a gun belonging to first son Hunter Biden.
The Secret Service publicly denied taking any role in attempting to find the missing gun or asking a gun shop to hand over Firearms Transaction Record papers for the gun, on which Hunter allegedly lied about his drug use, which would be a crime.
“In light of the recent press report, please provide all records relating to your agency’s involvement in the alleged October 2018 incident with respect to Hunter Biden’s firearm no later than April 8, 2021,” Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to Secret Service Director James Murray.
The Republican senators note that Hunter Biden was not supposed to have Secret Service protection at the time of the bizarre incident, which occurred after Hunter’s girlfriend Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother Beau, tossed the weapon into the trash behind a grocery store.
Johnson and Grassley wrote that, according to a Politico report, “a ‘law enforcement official’ claimed that Secret Service agents in Delaware ‘kept an informal hand in maintaining the former vice president’s security.’ If true, USSS must explain to Congress why such informal actions were taken and whether they were necessary in light of the circumstances.”
The letters to the FBI and to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were similar.
The Secret Service flatly denied that it was involved in the incident.
“U.S. Secret Service records confirm that the agency did not provide protection to any member of the Biden family in 2018, and that the Secret Service had no involvement in this alleged incident,” the agency said Thursday.
A White House official said, “President Biden did not have any knowledge of, or involvement in, the Secret Service’s alleged role in this incident, and neither he nor any family member was a protectee at that time.”
Hunter Biden on Friday joined his father aboard Air Force One for a weekend trip to Delaware.
Grassley and Johnson co-authored a September report that detailed alleged conflicts of interest involving Hunter Biden’s overseas work — including in China and Ukraine — while his father was vice president. The report claimed a firm linked to Hunter Biden received $3.5 million from Elena Baturina, the widow of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, for unknown reasons.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday, in response to a question from The Post, that she was “not familiar with the report at all.”
